No Heroic Battles: Lessons Of The Second Lebanon War
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This study reveals that Israel went to war without having clearly defined its critical political, diplomatic, or military goals and objectives. In the years immediately prior to the beginning of the war the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) rejected the long proven principles of war in favor of a novel, incoherent, and confusing doctrine. The war revealed the debilitating impact of a long counterinsurgency campaign on training, and traditional combined arms capabilities. Finally, despite the superb performance of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), airpower and technology proved to be inconclusive and a poor substitute for well-trained resolute maneuver forces directly engaging enemy forces.
Lt.-Col. Brian J. Murphy
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No Heroic Battles - Lt.-Col. Brian J. Murphy
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Text originally published in 2010 under the same title.
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NO HEROIC BATTLES: LESSONS OF THE SECOND LEBANON WAR
By
Lieutenant Colonel Brian J. Murphy
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
ABSTRACT 5
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5
ACRONYMS 6
TABLES 6
CHAPTER 1 — INTRODUCTION 7
Early Morning Patrol: Background to the Conflict 7
Scope 9
Importance 9
Primary Question 9
Underlying Assumptions 10
Key Terms 10
CHAPTER 2 — LITERATURE REVIEW 12
Lessons of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War 13
The Second Lebanon War: Strategic Perspectives 18
We Were Caught Unprepared: The 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War 23
The Rocket Campaign against Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War 25
Back to Basics: A Study of the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead 26
Summary 31
CHAPTER 3 — METHODOLOGY 33
Introduction 33
Conceptual Design 33
How the Information Was Collected 34
Importance and Limitations 34
Summary 35
CHAPTER 4 — FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 37
A National Hallmark of Improvisation: Security Strategy and the Israeli Decision-making Process 37
No Heroic Battles: The Second Lebanon War July 12 through August 14, 2006 41
Reflection and Recriminations: Did the Israelis achieve their wartime goals? 47
Winograd Commission Findings 48
Keeping the Wolves at Bay—the State of Israel’s Deterrence after the War 51
Summary 55
CHAPTER 5 — FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 57
Did Israel Achieve Its Strategic Goals? 58
Destroy Hezbollah’s Strategic Missile Force 58
Re-establish the Creditability of Israel’s Deterrence 61
Forcing the Lebanese government to establish and maintain Sovereign Control over South Lebanon 62
Damage Hezbollah 63
Securing the Release of Their Soldiers 64
Future Preparedness 64
Lessons for the United States 69
Summary 71
Recommendations for Further Research 72
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 73
BIBLIOGRAPHY 74
Books 74
Books Consulted 75
Periodicals 76
Other Periodicals Consulted 76
Government Documents 77
Other Sources 78
Other Sources Consulted 79
ABSTRACT
On July 12, 2006, Israel went to war with Hezbollah in response to the killing and capture of Israeli soldiers along the southern Lebanese border. Believed at the time by many in the West to be an overreaction to a relatively minor border incident resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths in Lebanon, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border, and the deaths of dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians. More important to Israeli nation security, the war exposed basic flaws in Israel’s national security assumptions, and defense strategy.
This study reveals that Israel went to war without having clearly defined its critical political, diplomatic, or military goals and objectives. In the years immediately prior to the beginning of the war the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) rejected the long proven principles of war in favor of a novel, incoherent, and confusing doctrine. The war revealed the debilitating impact of a long counterinsurgency campaign on training, and traditional combined arms capabilities. Finally, despite the superb performance of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), airpower and technology proved to be inconclusive and a poor substitute for well-trained resolute maneuver forces directly engaging enemy forces.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my wife, Vita Marie, and my children, Mark and Brian, for their love, understanding, and support while completing my thesis. I would also like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Jerold Brown, LTC (ret.) Robert Salvatorelli, and Dr. Janet A. Carleton for their advice and counsel. Finally, I would like to thank the citizen Soldiers of the Arizona Army National Guard whose commitment to duty, loyalty, and selfless sacrifice in war and peace both humbles and inspires me.
ACRONYMS
C³I—Command, Control, Communication, Intelligence Collection and Dissemination
COIN—Counterinsurgency
COS—Chief of Staff
CSIS—Strategic and International Studies
EBO—Effects-Based Operations
IAF—Israeli Air Force
IDF—Israeli Defense Force
IEDs—Improvised Explosive Devices
NATO—North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCW—Network-Centric Warfare
NSC—National Security Council
PLO—Palestinian Liberation Organization
SOD—Systemic Operational Design
UN—United Nations
UNSCR—United Nations Security Council Resolution
U.S.—United States
TABLES
Table 1—Rocket Impacts per Day
CHAPTER 1 — INTRODUCTION
The topic of this thesis is the Israeli-Hezbollah War of July 13, 2006 through August 14, 2006. The purpose of this thesis is to: (1) identify Israeli’s strategic goals for the war and whether or not these were achieved; (2) examine Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hezbollah and whether or not the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) achieved the war’s intended strategic ends; (3) identify what actions need to be taken for the Israeli’s to be better prepared to defeat Hezbollah, and similar militias; and (4) identify lessons from Israel’s experience in the Second Lebanon War which may assist the United States (U.S.) military in combating Islamic militia and terrorist organizations.
Early Morning Patrol: Background to the Conflict
Guarded by a combination of sophisticated electronic monitoring, fencing, and armed troops the border of Israel and Lebanon, commonly referred to as the Blue Line, is one of the most heavily guarded international boundaries in the world. The Blue Line runs from the Mediterranean Sea in the west, through mountainous county, to the disputed lands of the Golan Heights and Syria.
Sometime during the early morning hours of July 12, 2006, a band of guerilla fighters belonging to the Islamic Resistance (the military arm of Hezbollah) infiltrated across Israel’s northwestern border. Their intended mission was to capture Israeli soldiers to negotiate their release for Hezbollah and Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis. At 0900 hours local time, the guerillas ambushed a small IDF vehicle mounted patrol, killing three, and wounding two. Three other soldiers were captured by Hezbollah fighters and then spirited off into Lebanon. Simultaneously, Hezbollah forces north of the border fired suppressive volleys of Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.{1} The IDF retaliated swiftly by sending ground units and strike aircraft against Hezbollah targets in the south of Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) destroyed five bridges across both the Litani and A-Zaharni rivers to cut Hezbollah lines of communication and prevent the movement of IDF captives further into the interior of Lebanon.{2}
Thus began the Second Lebanon War{3} between Israel and Hezbollah. In the end, several hundred Lebanese civilians were killed, thousands wounded, and an estimated one-half million people on both sides of the border were displaced. Hundreds of Hezbollah’s best-trained and motivated fighters, and auxiliaries, were dead. Dozens of Israeli Soldiers and civilians were killed and thousands of Israeli civilians who chose to remain in their homes were bunkered down for weeks. The war inflamed passions in Europe, the U.S., and throughout the Arab world. Much of Europe decried Israeli retaliatory strikes as an over-reaction to a relatively minor border incident. The U.S., also actively fighting Islamic insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan, stood behind its ally (encouraging the Israelis to inflict as much damage on Hezbollah as possible) while at the same time pressing for a diplomatic solution through the United Nations (UN). Many of the neighboring Arab states, with the exception of Syria (a sponsor of Hezbollah), criticized Hezbollah’s imprudent timing and for instigating an unnecessary war. This criticism was borne of